Yesterday Wayne and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that twelve years ago, in a little church in Denver, we exchanged I Dos. In some respects it feels like just yesterday, in others it seems so much longer than that. (But in a good way.)
Like many little girls, I had always dreamed of being married. I had never dreamed of a church wedding, though. I had never really dreamt about the ceremony at all, save for wearing a beautiful gown and standing at an altar with my groom looking dreamily into each other’s eyes. (Goes back to the romantic in me.)
But as far as where the altar was…nope, never envisioned that. Never had any idea of the kind of reception I wanted either. Or of how I wanted my hair and makeup to be. Or the color and style of my bridesmaids’ dresses. The only other detail I might have ever fantasized about was the cake.
Our wedding was not a fancy affair. Sure, I had my beautiful gown and crown-like veil and Wayne wore a tux, but the flowers were modest, our reception was quaint and low-key, and there wasn’t much fan fare. If I’d had any idea what I was doing, maybe it would’ve been more lavish, but more or less we planned our wedding in two months. With a LOT of help from family.
And unlike most brides and grooms on their wedding day, we weren’t stressed, rushed, or pushed. We spent the morning together watching one of his cousins in a soccer game. Then we had lunch and went home to get ready for the 4:30 ceremony.
A limo came to pick me and my two bridesmaids –my sister and my good friend Tracie—up. Wayne drove himself to the church.
Actually, Tracie was with us all day too. (She’d flown in from Phoenix and was staying with us at my mom’s house.) She was the one who commented on how cool, calm, and collected we were. Especially as we sat stretched out soaking up sun at the soccer game.
“You guys crack me up. Instead of freaking out and making sure all last minute preparations are in order you’re hanging out like it’s any regular day and nothing important’s happening tonight.”
It actually didn’t feel like anything major was about to happen that night. I knew we’d get dressed up. I knew we’d meet at the altar. I knew we’d exchange I Do’s and then head to the restaurant to have dinner and the reception.
I floated through the day blissfully unaware of all the snafus awaiting us.
The preacher lost his voice and could barely preside over the ceremony. Oh well.
We ordered way more food than there were guests. Oh well.
The music system failed. Oh well.
It all came together anyway. The preacher married us, hoarse voice and all, guests went home with doggie bags, and Wayne’s brother ran home and got his music collection and boom box.
To commemorate the day we made tying the knot official, we spent it in the same fashion: with a laid back kind of day.
We put our joint birthday and anniversary present to good use with a rousing game of Wii Tennis. We enjoyed a late breakfast/early lunch. We came home and took naps, then challenged each other to a Wii Tennis rematch before we packed up Murph and spent a lovely afternoon soaking up the gorgeous weather at the park while we watched some soccer games. (But this time it was just random games, we didn’t know any of the players.) We capped it off by dining on the patio of a new Mexican restaurant up the street and snuck in one more Wii Tennis match before Wayne had to fly back to Jacksonville.
It was a good day. Maybe some would prefer to exchange silk, pearls, and colored gems, but not us. We’ll just have a day filled with lots of love thanks…and lots of Wii time.
Related Articles
Marriage Tales: Vignettes on Life
By Juno! Happily Ever After and Going Strong!
Other Families.com Bloggers Celebrate Their Anniversaries